The present invention relates to a cooling technique and an information processing apparatus and particularly to a technique effectively adapted to a technique for cooling a space-saving type personal computer, or the like.
For example, with the advance of semiconductor techniques or the like, performance of a microprocessor used in a personal computer or the like has been improved remarkably. Particularly, a product with an operating frequency of the level of GHz has been used widely.
On the other hand, with the users"" requirement for space saving and with reduction in cost of a liquid-crystal display, a so-called notebook type portable personal computer which has a liquid-crystal display and a body foldably connected to each other by a hinge has come into wide use. Moreover, an integral display type desktop personal computer which has a personal computer body integrated with the back or lower portion of a liquid-crystal display has come into wide use.
When a high-performance microprocessor with the level of GHz is mounted in such a space-saving type personal computer to provide the personal computer as a product, one of technical problems is means how to cool the microprocessor (to radiate heat from the microprocessor).
It is heretofore known that a cooling fan is disposed near the microprocessor or in a part of a housing so that the cooling fan forcedly generates an air stream passing through the microprocessor portion to radiate heat.
In the air-cooling system using such a fan, however, heat radiation has become insufficient because a large amount of heat is sent out when the existing high-speed microprocessor with the level of GHz is in operation. If heat radiation is to be made forcedly, a large-sized fan is required. There arises another technical problem in increase of the fan size and the housing size, increase of power consumption, increase of noise, or the like.
In such a space-saving type personal computer, there are sale points in small size, low noise, low power consumption, etc. Hence, increase in size of the housing, increase in power consumption and increase in noise as described above is a large technical problem against producing a space-saving type personal computer.
Therefore, it has been conceived that a liquid-cooling type cooling system using liquid as a thermal medium to thereby make it possible to achieve a large cooling capacity is employed in the conventional information processing apparatus.
An object of the present invention is to provide a technique in which reduction in size, noise and power consumption can be achieved in an information processing apparatus such as a space-saving type personal computer or the like and, at the same time, high performance can be achieved by use of a microprocessor with a high operating frequency.
Such a space-saving type personal computer is used in various locations or in various temperature environments. For example, the personal computer may be used in a cold district, or the like. Hence, in a personal computer which employs a liquid-cooling type cooling system using a liquid thermal medium to make it possible to achieve a large cooling capacity, cooling characteristic is deteriorated because of freezing, leaking, or the like, of the thermal medium. Hence, there is fear that failure such as system malfunction, thermal damage of the system, etc. may be caused by overheating of the microprocessor.
The present invention releases or prevents the freezing of the thermal medium in the following manner so as to prevent failure such as system malfunction, thermal damage of the system, etc.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a cooling system for cooling a heat-generating portion of an information processing apparatus. In the information processing apparatus which has an information processing portion and an information display portion integrated with each other, the cooling method is performed by circulating a thermal medium between a cooling jacket mounted on the heat-generating portion and a heat-radiating portion. The cooling method comprises steps of: making a judgment as to whether the thermal medium is frozen or not when the information processing apparatus is activated; and executing at least one of the processes of defrosting the thermal medium, issuing a warning and stopping the activation of the information processing apparatus, when a freeze of the thermal medium is detected.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a freeze of the thermal medium is judged at a point of time preset by a timer prior to the activation of the information processing apparatus, so that the thermal medium is defrosted when a freeze of the thermal medium is detected.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a freeze of the thermal medium is avoided in the following manner. The temperature of the thermal medium is monitored regardless of the operating state of the information processing apparatus. When the temperature is not higher than a threshold, freezing of the thermal medium is avoided by execution of at least one of a method of forcedly circulating the thermal medium and a method of heating the thermal medium by a heating means provided in the circulation path of the thermal medium.